Four Downs: Florida State

Steve Addazio often talks about riding a roller coaster with his young defense. The unit entered this season needing to replace seven starters from last year's roster, so there was an understanding that he would trust in the process even though he knew there would be ups and downs. Managing those ups and downs would become the team's pathway to success, even though it meant there would be extreme peaks and valleys.

If he needed any further proof, he probably didn't need to look further than the last two minutes of Saturday's loss to Florida State. A defense that held the Seminoles to three points and less than five minutes of possession time in the first quarter experienced a rookie meltdown in the fourth. It surrendered two explosive scoring plays in less than a minute's time and dropped a 38-31 heartbreaker in the team's annual Red Bandanna Game.

"You've got to tackle," Addazio said after the game. "We're doing everything we can right now. It's been up, it's been down. It's a roller coaster ride with tackling. It's not good enough. We've got to continue to get better. We've got to work at it."

It was a palpable frustration after a season spent watching the defense struggle through its inconsistency. The Seminoles amassed 524 yards against BC. Quarterback James Blackman threw for 346 yards and two touchdowns, both of which were longer than 50 yards. His 74-yard rainbow pass to Tamorrion Terry was part of a seven-catch, 156-yard performance by the receiver.

The emotion stemmed from the obvious setback on Saturday after the team dominated two of its previous three games. NC State's offense lacked sledding until the game was well out of reach, and the Syracuse blowout bookended a game against an angry Clemson team that is continuing to roll opponents. The FSU game provided a valley after the rising peak in the second half, so it becomes about managing those feelings as BC's second bye week begins.

"It's going to be an ongoing deal," Addazio said. "We're never going to stop that. We've got to get better at tackling and continue to work at our angles. We've got to continue to grow these guys. You're playing with a lot of guys back there that have a lot of youth. It's up and down right now, and that's frustrating, but at the end of the day they'll improve. We'll gain with that."

Here's some more takeaways from Saturday's loss:

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First Down: More emotion

Playing in an emotional, close game makes cooling down almost impossible in the short window before a media appearance. The rawness of everything is still painfully obvious because of the passion it takes to battle against an opponent for over three hours. There's a beauty in the contrast of celebration and pain, and that, in turn, makes sports a wonderful experience. While pain tortured the Boston College locker room, Florida State felt excitement and relief at the end of a week that began with sadness and confusion.

"They showed me (how they felt) when they came out to practice," interim head coach Odell Haggins said. "These kids really care about their school. They Florida State. Florida State is different. Once you're a Seminole, you're always a Seminole."

For the second time in three years, Haggins is bringing Florida State back from its depths. The first time, head coach Jimbo Fisher left for Texas A&M, and Haggins coached the Seminoles to a bowl-clinching win in the season's final game. On Saturday, he all but saved the FSU bowl hopes by doing it again, this time after Willie Taggart's firing.

"The kids had a feeling," Haggins said. "They showed me. They didn't just say, 'Coach we have your back.' They showed me. It's hard to explain when you see kids fight for you that went through adversity. It's so hard to explain."

Florida State always had a way of bouncing back this season after defeats. It only went over .500 once this season after beating NC State, but the team never played more than one game under .500 throughout the entire season. It will likely clinch a bowl berth in two weeks against FCS-level Alabama State, but it isn't lost how difficult it is to achieve that in the wide-open modern era of the ACC.

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Second Down: Cardiac Comeback

A season-ending injury to a team's starting quarterback always wields a certain amount of anxiety. Watching the player limp off the field is as painful as it gets for observers because of the uncertainty and concern for the future. The chief worry is always about the player's ongoing physical well-being, but the secondary piece centers on the backup's ability to keep an offense humming. When there's success, the backup quarterback becomes a folk hero.

Dennis Grosel might not be the flashiest or most well-known quarterback in football, but he's going to end the 2019 season as a Boston College legend. The former walk-on is doing everything that's asked of him, and on Saturday, he excelled to complete 20-of-29 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns.

"Dennis has taken some really good steps in the last two weeks," Steve Addazio said. "He threw the ball with confidence, he's running the ball, he's running the offense. He's doing a hell of a job."

Grosel's heart went on full display in the fourth quarter when he engineered a 13-play, 90-yard drive and killed over seven minutes of game time. He faced down a third down conversion by checking off to Ethon Williams, who was wide open on the left side, to gain 17 yards, and his 24-yard rush two plays later pushed the ball to the FSU goal line. After a number of Seminole penalties, Grosel took it in from the one, helicoptering in the air as he got crushed with a couple of hits.

He did throw an interception after the long touchdown pass to give FSU back the lead, but he went downfield in four plays after that to pull BC back within an onside kick attempt before time expired.

"As demoralizing as some drives may feel or some games may feel, you're one drive away from being back into it," Grosel said. "We knew heading into the game that we were going to need a little more balance than we've had the past couple weeks. I was pretty happy with the way our pass and run game married up this week."

Other players have more stars in their profile, but no player maximizes more out of his body than Dennis Grosel. He's turned into a BC legend, and though Saturday fell short, there are still two more games to watch his development before bowl season starts.

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Halftime Hits

-In the week prior to the game, I discussed at length why the Red Bandanna Game is necessary. As I walked through the concourses before the game, I heard several conversations inside the gates about the red bandannas handed out to arriving fans. In every group, one person seemed to know the story of Welles Crowther, and the remaining people - adults and children - listened to that person intently retell the story. Some went into more detail than others, but the constant message remained the same: Welles Crowther sacrificed his life on 9/11 so others could live.

-This is why this game is so important. Listening to people retell the story ensures that Welles and 9/11 remain in our conscious. It reiterates the message of service above self. It's something that's bigger than the game on the field, and it's even more critical to keep the memory going as we continue moving further away from the year of events.

-A number of events took place around the Red Bandanna Game, highlighting why it's so important. At halftime, BC retired Pete Mitchell's jersey. I remember Mitchell as the first-ever tight end I watched in college football. I remember when he broke the all-time receptions record in the Aloha Bowl against Kansas State, and I remember reenacting plays in my bedroom with a football because, at seven years old, Mitchell and Glenn Foley were my unquestioned heroes. Seeing his jersey retired was really cool for me because it brought me back to my memories as a child.

-Speaking of memories, I'm shocked that 57-year old Doug Flutie could still throw a 45-yard pass into the end zone to hit Gerard Phelan on a freezing cold day. Then again, the Miami defensive backfield doubted his ability to throw that pass in 1984, and it didn't exactly work out well for the Hurricanes. I shouldn't really call it a memory for me, though, since it happened 10 months before I was born. Either way, I'm in my mid-30s now, so using that as a discussion piece is actually prime reasoning why it's even more impressive.

-A whole bunch of older Eagles came back for this game, but it was really neat to see Justin Simmons and Isaac Yiadom return during the Denver Broncos' bye week. Simmons was one of the first starters who created the "DBU" reputation in the Boston College backfield, and Yiadom was a local product out of Central Massachusetts.

-Both remind me of players that develop into stars over time; Simmons started as a freshman on the 2012 team that went 2-10 and surrendered an average of 32 points per game to FBS programs, but his tenure ended with that 2015 unit widely regarded as the best defense in college football's modern era. Yiadom then became a piece of that legacy by becoming a starter on the 2014 team in his own rookie season.

-I say it every year, but I love the cold weather.

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Third Down: The Buffalo Boys rumble again

Everyone knows the Boston College offense lacks the fancy, video game style that's prevailing throughout college football. The Eagles eschew the flashy brand for an old-school, physical, brutal style built around a power running game featuring two 240-pound bulldozers. On Saturday, everything went the offense's way right up until those last two FSU plays won the game.

"I love where we are on offense right now," Steve Addazio said. "We've got a lot of experience over there right now. We've got a bunch of guys who are all going to be back, which is exciting. We have talent."

Both AJ Dillon and David Bailey ripped Florida State in the first half, combining for 17 carries and 72 yards in the first quarter before adding another 77 yards with a touchdown in the second. It fell out of sequence in the second half when Bailey took a huge collision at the start of the third quarter, but Dillon picked up the slack, finishing the game with a hard-earned 167 yards on 40 carries.

"Mike (Bajakian) is doing a great job (as offensive coordinator)," Addazio said. "Our offensive staff is doing a great job. We're putting up big numbers nationally, and that's why we've got a footrace to keep developing the other side (on defense)."

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Fourth Down: Updated ACC Race

The FSU win on Saturday dropped the Eagles to 5-5 on the season with two games remaining. The team is entering a bye week this week before heading on the road in the final games of the regular season, starting in two weeks with the renewal of the Holy War against Notre Dame. After that, a season finale in Pittsburgh will clear the dust on whether BC will play in a sixth bowl game during the Steve Addazio era.

It was an incredibly weird weekend in the ACC and continues to devolve the conference into absolute mayhem. Clemson manhandled NC State after Virginia Tech upset Wake Forest to clinch the Atlantic Division championship for the undefeated Tigers. They will head to the ACC Championship against a Coastal Division champion that is still unknown.

Virginia is the frontrunner right now after breezing past Georgia Tech, but the Cavaliers are tied in the loss column with both Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh. Both Commonwealth schools play each other in the season's final game, but the Hokies have to first clear Georgia Tech this week before playing a de facto elimination game against the Panthers.

That's not to say it's a three-team race. Miami, North Carolina and Duke all have three losses, and though the Hurricanes and Blue Devils will play on Tobacco Road in the season's final day, those teams still have a shot at the division crown if Virginia loses to Tech and the right combination plays out elsewhere.

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Point After: The Bowl Race

All of this becomes even more muddied in overall records because the ACC has 13 teams still fighting for bowl positioning. Six league teams are officially bowl eligible with six wins, and seven are entering this week with either four or five losses. Syracuse, at 3-6, is in the backcourt, still clinging to eligibility but facing elimination with games left against Duke, Louisville and Wake Forest.

In terms of the bowl race, Clemson should default into the College Football Playoff after Penn State lost to Minnesota, but the committee dropped the defending national champions to No. 5 despite an undefeated record last week. If Clemson gets into the CFP, then where Wake Forest lands in the rankings after the defeat will likely determine the rest of the rankings.

In a worst case scenario, Boston College likely needs to run the table in order to get into a Tier One bowl game with a 7-5 overall record. Otherwise, the Eagles would need some help from the remainder of the conference to slide into one of those four games. Going 6-6 without much help positions BC into a Secondary Bowl, which don't carry equal status but select in a predetermined order.

There are also rules surrounding BC's ability to go to certain bowls and moratoriums within the league that prevent games from selecting teams within a specified time period (example - because BC played in the 2017 Pinstripe Bowl, it can't return for four years).

Still, the bottom line is that the Eagles still need to become bowl eligible, which requires a sixth victory over either Notre Dame or Pittsburgh. Two games doesn't seem like much, but a long road exists between now and the end of the season.

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David Bailey

AJ Dillon

Dennis Grosel

Ethon Williams

Isaac Yiadom

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